They say that time is a great healer. But time is also a
great destroyer. Time is the main problem when trying to justify the changes
(and therefore the investment) required to adopt and utilise The Architecture
Paradigm™.

As with anything, there is a time lapse between making the
investment in utilising The Architecture Paradigm™ and reaping its benefits.
This is because just making the changes required to utilise The Architecture
Paradigm™ creates no benefit in and of itself. The benefits of spending the
money making those changes only come from the use of those changes as time
progresses.

The worst mistake people make when thinking about and
justifying the use of The Architecture Paradigm™ is that their expectations of
short term value are too high and their expectations of long term value are too
low. In reality, short term value is much less than expected but long term
value is much higher than expected. In fact the curve is more of an S shape
where initially there is a slight decrease in value (when adopting anything
new) then a slow increase in value, followed by an abrupt increase in value,
followed by a return to a more linear increase in value over time as maximum
value is achieved.

Justification for The Architecture Paradigm™ cannot be based
on the benefit of the next project or even the next two, three or four
projects. In fact, the next project (and possibly the second and third
projects) may well run slower and cost more money. This is the Chasm of
Procrastination.

Many people think (incorrectly) that justifying use of The
Architecture Paradigm™ is as easy (and should be as easy) as justifying whether
to buy a kettle or not - buy a kettle today, get the benefit tomorrow. In actuality,
justifying an investment in adopting or becoming more mature in your use of The
Architecture Paradigm™ is more akin to justifying spending 30K on going to
university for four years where you gain zero benefit for four years and at the
end of the four years there is still no immediate benefit and no guarantee that
you will a) get a job or b) that even if you do get a job, you will earn more
than what you would be earning if you had not saved 30K and gained four years
of experience instead. Another example might be buying insurance, having to pay
and pay and pay for something that you many never actually use or get any
benefit from whatsoever.

Do people in your Enterprise
expect Architecture to have immediate benefit?

What will you do to explain it
doesn’t?

What will you do to explain
that benefits come down the line?

Do you want to accept the risk
of not using The Architecture Paradigm™?

Is the Management of your
Enterprise in the Chasm of Procrastination™?